When Parking Spaces Are More Important Than Homes

Parking. It takes up a lot of space in the discussion of
transportation and planning. No surprise, since one of the main
problems with cars is how much space they take up even when they’re not
in use.

The Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, is no exception. In a post today from Greater Greater Washington,
Topher Mathews uses the example of a recent advisory neighborhood
commission meeting in which a resident’s request to construct a
basement exit in her building — which would theoretically make it
possible to create a separate rental unit — became, inevitably, a
discussion about parking. What if another resident moved in? It would
mean less parking for the people who are already there.

Mathews
points out that 20 percent of Georgetown residents don’t own cars. He
also notes that 23 percent of households own more than one car, and
asks why the interests of the multi-car-owning residents should trump
other concerns:

A Georgetown street. Photo by La Citta Vita via Flickr.

Several issues arise from this disconnect between the perception and
the reality of cars in Georgetown. When the [advisory neighborhood commission] or other entities put
parking paramount to all other issues, they are disregarding the
interests of one in five Georgetown residents. How does the focus on
parking affect non-drivers? When we don’t let that basement get turned
into a separate apartment because we’re worried about another car
hitting the street, we’re keeping another set of eyes off the street
too. We’re also keeping a customer out of neighborhood stores like
Scheele’s. Or a potential babysitter out of our Rolodexes. Or just
another neighbor to know. All because there’s a sixty-six percent
chance they may bring a car.

Moreover, these numbers show that the parking problem has less
to do with the number of households and more to do with a small
minority that chooses to have more than one car. So instead of
browbeating a resident about the square footage of her butler’s pantry,
the ANC ought to be asking each applicant that comes before it "how
many cars do you have and could you live with just one?"

As usual at Greater Greater Washington,
the comments thread is pretty lively. One of the interesting questions
raised there: why do people get so outraged by the idea that policies
(such as parking permits) might limit the number of cars in a
neighborhood — but not when policies limit the number of people? As BeyondDC puts it:

For goodness sake, one person’s desire to own and conveniently park
a car is not more important than another person’s desire to have a home.

More from around the network: Design New Haven writes about a campaign to bring BoltBus service to that city. The Overhead Wire writes about how Charlotte, NC, planners gamed the EPA system in favor of building more roads. And Copenhagenize reports that the European Union wants to increase funding for cycling infrastructure.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

We’re reprinting this reply [PDF] from UCLA professor Donald Shoup, author of the High Cost of Free Parking, to Randal O’Toole, the libertarian Cato Institute senior fellow who refuses to acknowledge the role of massive government intervention in the market for parking, and the effect this has had on America’s car dependence. It’s an excellent […]

In healthy urban areas, people always complain that there’s not enough parking. And they still do that in Silver Spring, Maryland, says Dan Reed at Greater Greater Washington. But they’re wrong. The city’s downtown parking supply is only about 58 percent occupied on an average day. Even as the city has grown, more parking is sitting […]

Across the country, everyone’s looking to San Francisco when it comes to parking policy. Big cities like Los Angeles and New York City are moving toward their own versions of the pioneering SF Park system, which sets meter rates based on the actual demand for parking spaces. It’s not just big city governments that see […]

Does it make sense for cash-strapped transit agencies to spend millions of dollars on park-and-ride facilities and then give those parking spaces away for free? The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, which operates in the Minneapolis suburbs, is going to spend $6.6 million to build a 330-car garage at its Apple Valley Transit Station. Matt Steele […]

“We have to deal with reality,” L.A. World Airports (LAWA) Chief of Planning Christopher Koontz stated at last week’s Metro Board of Directors meeting: even after the LAX rail connection opens in 2024, LAWA expects air travelers will keep driving. LAWA is the city of L.A. department in charge of LAX and a couple smaller airports. Responding to […]

Yesterday, we mentioned that some people in Washington, DC, are up in arms over a zoning rule designed to let more people move in to some residential areas. Linda Schmitt, leader of a group that goes by the name “Neighbors for Neighborhoods,” is organizing against a measure that would allow people to live in existing […]